From Ur to Kazus
by compass-ink
Summary: Arc tries to prove himself.


Arc slipped into the house, closing the door as quietly as he could so he wouldn't attract Nina's attention. He bit the cuff of his sleeve, gripping it tightly between his teeth until the shakiness from his shame, fear, and anger subsided.

He had just run away from a pack of nine-year-olds... no, actually. He'd run away from Luneth. But everyone would remember that he had been arguing with little boys and they had been _winning_ because they weren't actually arguing. They'd just been saying the usual things, scardey-cat knowitall coward. Logic bounced off of them.

There weren't ghosts in Kazus. There just weren't such _things_ as ghosts! Arc knew that, and frankly everyone ought to. The bump in the night was probably just a raccoon at the water barrel. Rabbit's feet weren't lucky, they were just... feet that you couldn't use in stew. And how could anyone think a town that was only half a day away had suddenly become a ghost town?

He slipped out the door again. The boys had all run away when Luneth had arrived, thankfully... how pathetic, that he had to hide from them. Arc glared at the ground. Kazus _was_ only half a day away. There was no reason he couldn't go and prove that the rumors were false. It was dangerous outside of the village, but... he grasped the hilt of the knife that Topapa had given him when he'd turned twelve. He'd been taught how to use it alongside Luneth, but until now he'd never been inclined to.

It was about time that he changed that. He couldn't hide behind Luneth forever, and he couldn't refuse to do things just because it meant leaving Ur. He'd do it! He'd prove that he wasn't a coward, and that there weren't any ghosts in Kazus. A tiny thought asked if that would really stop those brats from making fun of him, but he didn't let it take hold. He'd prove them wrong.

A few hours later, Arc was sitting on a log in the forest, wondering why maps and stories always said _half a day_ as though it was no bother at all. He dug a rock out of his boot, wondering how it had found its way in there, and loosened his scarf. As chilly as the early spring day had been, he felt perspiration all over him. He could at least be grateful for his good sense in bringing a waterskin-and as he turned to pull it from under his jacket, he saw the goblin.

He wasn't sure how he managed to get the knife out of its sheath, much less block the rusty dirk that the goblin swung. Every thought in his head ran into the next one and tangled into a mass of panic and the one that overrode everything was: _RUN._ But he couldn't. It was right in front of him and it was grinning and it stank of offal and it was drawing its arm back for another strike and-

His hand, independently of his mind, struck towards the goblin's neck. The grin vanished, replaced with a far worse expression-pain, shock, despair. Gargling hideously, it clawed at its throat and dropped to its knees, dragging Arc's arm down with it. He hadn't pulled the dagger back oh _help_... and then slid off and hit the ground, dead. Arc stared at it, arm still stiff and pointing at the creature. Dark green blood dripped off the dagger. More blood from the wound soaked the ground, turning it into a hideous mud.

He stood very still for a few more seconds. Then he turned and threw up on the other side of the log.

It took Arc another quarter of an hour to clean off the dagger with handfuls of leaves. His whole body was trembling uncontrollably, but he'd been taught to take care of the weapon and he didn't want it to be... sticky when he sheathed it. He sat on the ground some distance away from the log and the dead goblin, not wanting to look at it. It would have killed him, he knew that. Goblins raided the outskirts of Ur whenever they could. They had killed children and old folks who strayed too far. Luneth himself had had a close call a few years ago the first time he'd gone into the wilderness. But Arc couldn't forget the way its face had changed when he'd stuck his knife in its throat. He couldn't forget the way it felt, either-flesh parting, knife sticking when it hit the bone, ripping skin. Another shudder ran through him as he recalled just as clearly the way it had looked before. It had tried to kill him first. If he hadn't turned around, it would have knifed him in the back and stolen everything while he lay helpless and bleeding in agonizing pain, getting colder and colder and with no hope of rescue because he hadn't told anyone he was coming out here. They would only know when someone went to visit Kazus and had to bring his body back to Nina.

Arc sprang up, looking around wildly. He didn't have time to sit here terrified! If he got killed because he was busy having the shakes over the fact that he had beaten a monster for the first time ever... well it would just prove that he wasn't just a coward, but a stupid coward. But there was nothing stirring in the grass. Birds sang, small animals rustled in the leaves. After another few minutes of paranoid staring around the woodlands, Arc reoriented himself south by the sun-there was a well-worn track through these woods, but it would be too easy to wind up going right back to Ur. He winced as his feet sent their aches all the way up his legs. But it had to be three hours since noontime, and he needed to reach Kazus before sundown. Halfway there, he told himself-he was more than halfway there, and surely once he reached town and found that there were _no ghosts,_ he could ask someone to stay the night in exchange for doing their chores, or something...

He stopped short. More than halfway to Kazus? That meant he was farther from Ur than he had ever been in his life. He was farther from Ur than_Luneth_ had ever been. A thrill of pride sent new energy into him, letting him override the complaints from his achy feet and sore legs. Now he was at the end of the woods, and it was all meadow from here to Kazus. He could do this. He really could!

A few moments later he found that the meadow was a mixed blessing. He could see the goblins now, but they also had no problem seeing _him_ unless he ran and found a hollow in the tall grass he could duck into. Maybe he could kill the next one he had to fight, but as soon as he remembered the feeling of stabbing that first one, he felt queasy again. It was that thought that kept him walking with his knife out, eyes darting to and fro rather than stopping to watch a grouse and her nestlings or get a closer look at a clump of tall purple daisies. Another fear snaked into his mind: was he going the right way after all? Kazus was to the south, behind a clump of the eastern mountains that blocked it from view. He ought to see it soon, right? There were the mountains, and he could see where they jutted out. He would get around them soon, Arc told himself. It wasn't as though there was any other direction _to_ go except back north, and the valley wasn't wide enough that a town would be too far away to spot over meadows.

All the same, he heaved a sigh of relief when rooftops came into view. He lifted his water-skin and tilted it completely upwards, getting the very last drops, although he'd emptied it not long after he left the woods. He would have to ask them for the use of their well, too... now that he could see it, Arc wondered how friendly the villagers would be. What would they even say when he told them why he had come? They would have a good laugh at Ur, that was for sure, and probably at him too. No, definitely at him too. He was sweaty and exhausted and covered in dust and tickseeds, a disgrace. And he didn't know a single one of them. He'd have to blunder around like a fool looking for their elder, and they'd send him all around the village to have have a bit of fun...

Arc shoved those thoughts away and clenched his fists as he kept walking. He'd gotten all the way here, all on his own, without even needing help fighting the monsters. That counted for more than the words of idiot nine-year-olds.

It wasn't even sundown when he reached the edge of Kazus. Was it a little too quiet? He could hear the livestock, but there weren't any people around, and he couldn't hear any of the normal sounds of a village-a spinning wheel going, metal clanging from the forge, wood being chopped, _something._

They weren't ghosts, Arc told himself. There were no such things. Of course there was a reasonable explanation. He squared his shoulders as best he could and started forward, and that was when he spotted one of the villagers.

Arc didn't scream. He didn't fall to his knees or faint either, although he wasn't exactly sure how he was staying upright since his knife had fallen to the dirt and he couldn't work out how to make his fingers close again. The-the person, the _thing_, let out a yelp and ran for cover, but Arc stayed rooted to the spot, looking back and forth. Now he could see them. No, he could see what was left of them: transparent shapes with thin outlines, skulking around Kazus, trying futiley to open a door or reach out to each other.

And then something poked him in the shoulder. _That_ was when he screamed and fell to his knees, shaking like a leaf.

He'd never been more relieved and ashamed to see Luneth in his life.

"Why did you run off on your own?" Luneth asked, a friendly smile on his face. "What are you trying to prove, anyway?" There wasn't a hint of accusation, just curiosity with a bit of concern. Luneth had made plenty of mistakes, but Arc wasn't sure he could explain to someone who never had to feel ashamed of something he _hadn't_ done.

"Let me go with you, Luneth," he said, but his voice shook. "I want to show everyone I'm not a weakling-" The day of walking was still fresh in his mind, although that might just be thanks to his sore feet reminding him. "I did manage to come here all by myself... you'll take me with you, Luneth, won't you?"

He stood still as Luneth thought about it, rubbing his chin. "All right," he said at last. "If that's what you want."

Maybe he'd seen the goblin blood on Arc's clothes, even though he'd only actually fought one and run from the rest. Or maybe Luneth just pitied him. _I got here myself,_ Arc repeated in his head as he followed Luneth's confident stride into Kazus. He had definitely done that, and he hadn't run away from it once he saw the-the ghosts, if that's what the people really had turned into, and now he could watch Luneth's back. Because Luneth did get into trouble a lot and he kept going; he wasn't a coward. If Arc was by his side, Arc wasn't a coward either.


End file.
